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Posted: April 4, 2008 6:42 PM
After Questions and Criticism, Clinton Releases Tax Records
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Having weathered a barrage of questions from critics, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton released her tax records Friday, revealing that she and former President Clinton have paid more than $33.7 million in federal taxes on their joint income of $109 million over the past eight years.

Initially, Clinton held that she would not release her records until she was named the Democratic nominee. Recently, however, Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama’s’s decision to release his records from the last decade put pressure on the Clinton campaign to make the New York senator’s records public. Obama’s team criticized Clinton for her secrecy in withholding multiple types of records.

“Releasing tax returns is a matter of routine. We believe the Clinton campaign should meet that routine standard and meet that routine standard now,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week, according to Reuters.

The tax records show over $10 million in charitable donations, about 9.5 percent of their adjusted gross income, according to a statement by the Clinton campaign.

Looking to rebound from accusations that the New York senator had not been forthcoming, Clinton campaign operatives sought to trumpet the breadth of Friday’s record release.

“The Clintons have now made public thirty years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service,” Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement. “None of Hillary Clinton’s presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.”

Clinton’s schedules during her eight years as first lady were released last month, and the Obama campaign has also called for a release of her list of financial donors, which has yet to be made public.